31 December 2015

Phew, I did it, 31 Bunny pics in 31 days. Most of them Christmas related. I feel gooood. I set a goal, had fun and achieved it.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing Bunny as much as I have had creating the images. Here are the final set for the year.

I want to thank you all for following me along on my continuing art journey. I hope you stick around for a while longer. Happy New Year to you all and I hope you all have a happy, healthy, fun year ahead.

30 December 2015

Just giving you all a heads up as to one of my plans for January. Leslie Saeta is running her 30 paintings in 30 days challenge again this year. I must admit this is the first time I have heard about it but am keen to participate. You can follow along with everyone, or join up yourself here... http://30paintingsin30days.weebly.com/

One of the things I have been thinking about lately is that I need to do more painting. So what an opportunity to do just that. I am telling you all here to try and make myself accountable. If I've said I'm going to do it then I am more likely to follow through. You know how it is...

Before Christmas I bought 2 sheets of Arches watercolour paper and this morning I got busy and cut it up into 30 sheets. Yes they are small. Around A5 size but I figure small is less intimidating. Small can be lots of fun. I have larger pieces available as well if I feel the need. But I think it will look pretty impressive to see 30 paintings all the same size.

So here they are...

30 sheets of watercolour paper.

I am thinking I will follow a theme for my paintings, or possibly short runs on a few different themes. Just see how things go. Possible topics are faces, cats (of course), and food. Of course they could end up random. No pressure here to do a certain thing except paint. I hope to try some different techniques and colours. Most of all I just want to have fun and do what I love - paint.

13 December 2015

A lovely author I know, Jackie Hosking, has offered people the chance to illustrate some of her poems. As soon as I read them I had images flying through my mind that I just wanted to put to paper for her.

The first one I did was for Bedraggled. I was so pleased when she accepted it and posted it on her blog.

Bedraggled

I have also drawn the following illustrations for a few other poems, that she has also accepted.

Old Dog

Catch a Dewdrop

The Beach

It is such a wonderful thing to be able to illustrate such beautiful work and get a bit of free publicity as well. But that was not the main factor for me. There are still a couple of other poems I am hoping to do illustrations for when I find the time.

13 November 2015

I have been using a watersoluble graphite pencil for many of my portraits lately. A few people have mentioned that they had never heard of them before so I decided to do this quick simple tutorial showing my process using one. I use a Progresso Aquarelle. I bought it individually at the local art store for around $2.

I do my drawing initially using it the same as any other graphite pencil. I do like that it is woodless and can be used on its side for shading, much like charcoal.

Here is the end of the sketch. Reference is from a Pixabay image by Ben Kerchx

I then use a waterbrush to blend areas. I tend to start with the darkest areas first and then build up form.

I have found to keep the darkest darks it is best to lightly wet the area with the brush. Washes tend to lighten it overall. Here I brushed from the blended graphite down and away in the top 2 images. If I am trying to control the area more I wash from clean area up into the graphite, as in the bottom example. I hope that makes sense. Basically I am using it like a watercolour pencil, if you are familiar with them.

Initial washes and blending complete. You can see that I have flicked the brush out from the dark hair areas to help depict strands. Now to let it dry completely.

Once dry I go back erase any areas I want to lighten and go over other areas with the pencil to add detail or more shading. It can be nice to see some pencil lines in the final piece.

I hope you have found this to be interesting and informative in some way. I often find it is nice just to see the process someone else uses.

07 November 2015

I am happy to say that I am back. Yes I tried a different blog site and have lost nearly a years worth of posts but as they say onwards and upwards. If you are keen to see what you have missed you can always look at my Facebook page Jacqui Petersen Illustrations

I did have a break from my art due to health and other reasons for a few months but I am back into the full swing of it. October was a huge month with Inktober, Every Day in October, Drawloween, Scavenger Hunts and a few portraits and other sketches along the way. However did I find the time and energy.

About Me

I am an artist and recently completed an Advanced Diploma in Illustration. I try to paint or draw something daily. I love working in pen and ink, and watercolour among other mediums. This is some of what I create.

Copyright

All artwork/illustrations shown are the work of Jacqui Petersen unless otherwise stated. All such work is copyright protected and is not to be used or copied in any form without express permission. Please respect my right as an artist.